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Stone-to-mud probably always existed because it's a great utility spell for castle storming, and stone-to-flesh because " failed one save character dead forever" was greeted with "gently caress you Gary, that's bulldog!!" Even in the 60s.
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Nov 24, 2017 15:39
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Horrible Lurkbeast posted:Remember that Skaven are inspired by the ratpark experiments, where the population density was allowed to grow far beyond healthy proportion.
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Nov 25, 2017 13:42
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I don't think it would be THAT hard to keep vampires hidden - they're rich, connected, powerful, and deeply dug in. Tell me, would you REALLY be surprised if there was a murder cult of extremely rich Manhattanites who quietly picked off a sex worker or transient person once a week? Especially if they had a cadre of cops on their side?
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Dec 1, 2017 00:14
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Night10194 posted:It's the part where they get into regular superhero fights and also have a supervillain component whose entire thing is 'gently caress HIDING' that makes it strain credulity. Well.
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Dec 1, 2017 00:19
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A local young noble pissed off a local witch with his terrible manners, so he's been cursed with wereporcine. Every full moon, he'll turn into a literal boar. To break the curse, the PCs must have a charming dinner with the noble, or just find the witch and ask her nicely to reverse the curse.
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Dec 8, 2017 18:40
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RPGs also have the weird trait shared with comic books where, due to the commercial infrastructure surrounding the creative work, you got individual entries that directly contradict or undermine the larger artistic vision. You have serious stories about what it means to never die... interrupted by a team up with super girl or part of a gimmick to gender swap all heroes. Vampire has the added twist where the consumer of the media isn't particularly interested in the intended experience anyway, and would rather play moody superheroes.
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Dec 9, 2017 16:21
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MonsterEnvy posted:I liked the "We are Rebel Demons, so naturally we have to do good deeds and follow all the rules. Yesterday I did some community service and donated blood I am such a badass"
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Dec 20, 2017 06:07
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I blame the creepy vampire who has been following the players around, disguised or possessing Mirom-mer
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Dec 22, 2017 02:26
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I'm seriously having trouble imagining a scenario with any of my play groups where the mythos train plot wouldn't be irreversible derailed into a game of "mad private detectives try to murder Mussolini" if I had blackshirts jump them in a gondola after a funeral. Like I'm pretty sure Felik himself would have to show up and order their asses back on the train.
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Dec 24, 2017 02:12
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Real subtle with the clone subplot, ZombieTown. Also, if you're going to have the local police be essential to maintaining the conspiracy, you should probably write them as being part of the conspiracy from the beginning. If people started getting obviously body snatched and are attacking the sheriff, I'm pretty sure my party isn't letting her out of their sight.
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Dec 28, 2017 03:51
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I'd love it if a far future transhuman game just had the twist be that each society was lovely and terrible in exactly the way you'd expect. Post-currency culture that relies on reputation and social norms? Hope you're not the Freaks and Geeks of Station Mean Girls. Hypercapitalist arcology? The only art and culture are decadent displays of wealth and graffiti. Libertopia with no laws? The local warlord keeps turning it into a pirate and slaving port.
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Jan 3, 2018 05:10
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I'm really excited for this Neuroshima review. Games made in non-english languages, isolated from American tropes, always have these interesting veneers to them. Even when they follow the same Tolkien formula, cultural frameworks and the different local zeitgeist are reflected in these fascinating ways.
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Jan 5, 2018 03:32
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So basically HSD is the new Doom game but even dumber, with furries. Cool!
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Jan 8, 2018 03:38
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Tevery Best posted:Oh, it's not really isolated from American tropes. In fact, it mashes together an incredible number of them in a way that is unmistakably European because of its blind spots. I think the strongest telltale sign is that for a game set in the United States it only ever mentions two states by name.
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Jan 8, 2018 03:44
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Cythereal posted:Or give the lich a congenial butler sort who doesn't want to put up with the hassle of his boss waking up and damning adventurers to the torment of ten thousand years and tries to shepherd them out of the fortress of doom. A loud crash as a manticore lands on the drawbridge behind them. "I forgot to let in the cat!"
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Jan 12, 2018 20:24
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Why even have it be a setup? What's the point? I mean, sure, your local guide is part of the cult, that's fine. How would it ever come up that the attack was faked, and if it did come up, his does that improve the story? Why does the sweaty shadowbroker need to be a patsy? It literally adds nothing.
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Jan 18, 2018 04:05
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My favorite Lovecraft story is the one where the protagonist goes mad and commits suicide when he realizes his grandmother was African*. *And also a sasquatch
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Jan 18, 2018 18:00
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I feel like maybe I should clarify, I actually love Lovercraft and Howard and Burroughs, but my fave is problematic. I don't think that disqualify them from modern media, but it's part of the legacy that every work carries, and has to be dealt with (even if you deal with it by ignoring it and excising any mention). I just feel that mentioning Aurthur Jermyn really helps to contextualize Lovecraft and his derivatives.
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Jan 18, 2018 19:09
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The Vosgian Beast posted:I was going to say "Hey, Burroughs wasn't a racist or a contemporary of Howard and Lovecraft" but then I realized you were talking about Edgar Rice and not William S
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Jan 19, 2018 19:59
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You know what would have been a great climax for being held hostage by 300 all-powerful cultist and their flesh monster made from tortured kids? A pissed off vampire ripping them to shreds in front of the players who manage to escape with some kids and part of the statue. You know what would be a great end to the adventure? Trying to deal with a pissed off vampire who really wants that cool arm you've got.
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Jan 21, 2018 02:49
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RiotGearEpsilon posted:What's ridiculous about a magic hat? Edit: Never mind I just heard myself say 'magic hat' out loud
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Jan 27, 2018 01:07
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Man... Now I want to play a game where you're a blues musician who is trying to stay one step ahead of ol' Scratch, using mojo and music. This is mostly a separate thought.
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Jan 30, 2018 03:49
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When I was a pre-teen, I was convinced our GM had some thousand-entry critical failure table. Turned out he just made us keep rolling a d6 until it didn't show a 1 while he came up with something appropriately disastrous.
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Jan 31, 2018 22:44
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Mirror universe really makes much more sense for an RPG anyway. I mean, who doesn't look at Star Trek: Discovery and see their play group. Don't @ me.
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Feb 2, 2018 04:07
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Night10194 posted:Ah, NPC the players are expected to love, always a dangerous gambit. I'm getting a serious "Kilimanjaro Expedition" sketch from Starkweather. Like this is the prologue to one of those "ill-fated" expeditions where the leader thought English Grit was an acceptable replacement for proper planning and sufficient supplies. Being told that I'm expected to respect this guy, even in character...
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Feb 20, 2018 04:29
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Kurieg posted:I like Pugmire well enough, I just wish it was less up it's own rear end about Pugs and the whole Miscegenation thing. To bring it back to Pugmire, it doesn't take a lot of effort to re-write the Pugs and other Noble Breeds as inbred, incompetent antagonists who are leading the the Dog Kingdoms to ruin, and the heroes of the setting as the Strays and Mutts. Pan Dachshund would obviously be re-cast as Pan Jack Russel, and have a MUCH more explicitly negative view of Pugmire society. This just isn't as easily supported by the rules as I'd like, though.
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Mar 4, 2018 21:12
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I should clarify that I have oddly strong feelings about dog breeding in general and pugs in particular, and that may be coloring my views. I don't have a problem with Pugmire being a reskinned 5e though - not every setting need their own system.
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Mar 5, 2018 01:46
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Mors Rattus posted:I hate to break it to you but 5e is the opposite of a universal system, and indeed does a disservice to the whole magic-as-highly-advanced-lost-technology thing.  But I don't have a lot of experience with 5e, so I'll take your word for it. I'm just throwing out there that, dog breeding rants aside, I don't have a fundamental issue with "Greyhawk But Dogs" - in fact, I often get frustrated when a setting feels the need to re-invent the wheel. But I also think 2nd was a terrible match for spelljammer so maybe I just don't like learning new rule sets even if they're more appropriate.
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Mar 5, 2018 02:43
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Hommlet is fine for doing first, but I'd REALLY love a blind reading of Barrier Peaks because it really feels like out of nowhere.
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Mar 10, 2018 02:22
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I want to clarify, so that you don't get suspicious and google it - Barrier Peaks isn't a BAD surprise. It's not the author ambushing you with their fetish or radical ideological beliefs, like Wizard's First Rule. It's just an honest to God left field zinger.
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Mar 10, 2018 05:34
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Toughness should give DR 1/-, or like 3 HP per level. Feats should noticeably affect your character, and taking toughness should make your character a person who is defined by by their remarkable toughness.
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Mar 12, 2018 23:34
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In defense of the single big monster, it makes combat tremendously easier to run. There's a reason a horde of zombies gets treated as, well, a horde. Having said that, I really appreciated how 4e made the fundamentals for an interesting encounter very clear and straight forward (Skirmishers versus Artillery versus Elites) even if they didn't execute it perfectly.
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Mar 13, 2018 05:07
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GM: "The Duke casts Fact Or Fiction" The players all groan, one grabs in head in despair.
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Mar 13, 2018 23:46
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Simian_Prime posted:Betrayal at Alpha Complex
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Mar 25, 2018 18:53
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They're also about the laziest, most boring way you could handle the concept "What if the Thomas Malory Knights of the Round Table were more augmented that J.C. Denton".
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Mar 27, 2018 04:19
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I'm enjoying these write ups by the way. Although for a low magic setting, they aren't waiting on having you fight a demon prince in a floating ice castle.
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Apr 1, 2018 05:04
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Oh my goooooooooooooooood
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Apr 1, 2018 22:41
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I do kinda want to play in a game where "A Wizard, A Space Marine, and two different versions of cat men go on a quest to throw the One Ring into The Dark Sun" now. No, not Torg. No, not Rifts. No, not D&D 2e.
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Apr 2, 2018 05:08
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Hey, so, last week I started writing an essay about the 4e release, trying to put all those arguments from 10 years ago in context. The idea being that, after 10 years, we could discuss the edition war in an academic manner. So what I'm trying to say is, when I post it, I'm not aiming it at anyone here in this current discussion.
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Apr 3, 2018 22:23
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A book of monsters in the original Greek sense, with advice on how to incorporate their moral message of divine punishment into your particular game would be pretty cool.
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Apr 4, 2018 17:19
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